FOR IMEDIATE RELEASE – Thursday, September 2, 2021
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham
Representative Brian Egolf, Speaker of the House
Senator Mimi Stewart, President Pro Tempore
Representative Patricia Lundstrom, House Appropriations & Finance Committee Chair
Senator George Muñoz, Senate Finance Committee Chair
New Mexico Roundhouse · 490 Old Santa Fe Trail · Santa Fe, NM 87501
Financial fairness in the use of $1.7 Billion of the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds and the forecasted $1.39 billion in General Fund Revenue “New Money”
Dear Governor and Legislators,
Labor Day is but a few days from now.
As members of the Labor Community, we feel it is important that our government leaders do more than offer words in support of the state’s workforce – those empowered by the electorate need to provide real action to help public workers in our state meet the financial needs of their families.
You are key policymakers when it comes to laying out the agenda for the use of the state’s financial resources. And we appreciate that you have made some important steps forward for working families in New Mexico since January 2019 – including paid Parental Leave, modest improvements in the Public Employee Bargaining laws, the 4% and 5% pay increases for state employees in the original FY 2020 budget, the first ever improvement to the sick leave accrual rate, and an additional day of Personal Leave per year.
CWA Local 7076 represents many of the approximately 2,000 state employees who, following a decade of brutal fiscal austerity, are still paid wages that the President of the United States has quite rightly described as “poverty wages.”
We also represent thousands of the state employees, who, along with school employees, saw their 4%, 5%, or 6% cost-of-living increases scheduled to take effect in July of 2020, eliminated even as members of the Governor’s office staff, favored Cabinet Secretaries, and select senior managers were receiving between $7,000 and $18,000 per year in new salary increases.
New Mexico state government has now received $1.7 Billion of the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds alone; this in addition to the millions of dollars in COVID-19 federal relief funds it received earlier. In addition to the above, both the administration and legislative finance experts are forecasting $1.39 billion in previously unanticipated, General Fund Revenue – essentially, “New Money.”
When we worked with Senator Sedillo Lopez, as she offered amendments during the last budget debate to restore the increases that were rescinded by the governor and legislature, we were extremely disappointed when the Democratic leaders in the Senate and many of the members who identify as “Progressives” either failed to vote, or actually voted against our state and school employees having their promised pay raise restored. Most of those same Senators also failed to support Senator Sedillo Lopez’s amendment to finally establish a $15/hour minimum wage for state and school employees.
Our members and their families have not forgotten the failure of the Democratically controlled state government to treat them fairly when it comes to compensation.
It is important to remember that since 2019, when the Democrats were handed the levers of state government for both branches of government which control spending, state employees have been denied a real fair compensation package when compared to assistance provided by administration and legislature leaders to businesses such as Hollywood production companies, Intel, and Facebook.
Again, there have been compensation increases – but they fall far short of what most of your employees need to restore the losses in quality of life that were a result of years of insufficient or no increases during the years following the 2008 recession and through the administration of Republican Governor Susana Martinez.
Prior to that, the previous Democratic Governor, Bill Richardson, and the Democrats in control of the legislature provided the leadership which not only restored collective bargaining for public employees, but also provided increases in hourly compensation of close to 19% during the years before the 2008 recession.
The current Democratically controlled state government has significant financial resources to meet the needs of your state employees – but it needs the leaders to step up and provide fairness in the distribution of those resources.
So far, the only member of the Democratic leadership speaking of the need to address the inequities is Representative Lundstrom. We appreciate her bold and very fair statements when she spoke of the use of the ARPA and other federal funds to address some of our systemic compensation inequities.
And more recently, Representative Lundstrom spoke of the need to use some of the “new money” in general fund revenues to restore fairness in pay. As reported in the Santa Fe New Mexican:
Rep. Patty Lundstrom, a Gallup Democrat and chairwoman of the committee, called the projected $1.4 billion revenue increase “really great” news … Lundstrom also said she would like to consider investing in research and development, including on hydrogen as a new alternative energy, as well as salary adjustments for state government employees.
Lundstrom said the projected revenue growth “… opens the door to a number of possibilities … I’m hoping that my colleagues will agree that the economy is going to be a big piece of this,” she said. “We just need to make sure that we’re focusing on building the economy and helping people that need help.” [Emphasis added.]
Santa Fe New Mexican, August 27, 2021
“New Mexico projects nearly $1.4 billion budget windfall” by Daniel J. Chacón
So, as Labor Day arrives, we ask you all, as leaders, to deliver on the promise to improve the lives of all New Mexicans, including those of the state employees and their families, who have not yet received the same treatment as have other sectors assisted by actions of the administration and the legislature.
Finally, please take heed of all the recent announcements raising the minimum wages of employees to at least $15/hour at UNMH, Presbyterian, and CHRISTUS St. Vincent Hospitals as well as other private entities like Target, Walgreens, and Best Buy, etc.
We could not agree more with Representative Lundstrom when she stated:
“We want at least to have a living wage for folks, for goodness’ sakes.”
Sincerely,
Dan Secrist, President
Charles Compton, Executive Vice President
Megan Green, Secretary
Communications Workers of America, Local 7076